Villanova gets back on track with easy rout of Stony Brook

By
Terry Toohey, Delaware County Daily Times

Saturday, September 21, 2013

RADNOR — John Robertson isn’t one of those quarterbacks who stands in the pocket and pick a team apart. He’s a new-wave QB, who enjoys beating a team with his feet as well as his arm. He believes that he is a better overall quarterback when he is allowed to run the ball.

“I think it sets up the pass for me,” Robertston said. “I think we get in a better groove.”

Yet in the first two games, the sophomore from Villanova did not run the ball quite as much as he would have liked.

Put the blame for that on Andy Talley. The Villanova coach was a little hesitant to turn his QB loose in much the same way Texas A&M allows Heisman Trophy winner Johnny Manziel to take over a game. Talley was merely being cautious. He was concerned that if Robertson ran the ball too much, the 6-1, 215-pound sophomore may not make it through the season.

After two losses, though, Talley realized that if the Wildcats had any chance to turn things around and making a run at the CAA title, Robertson had to be point man on offense, which meant he had to run the ball more.

Robertson topped the 100-yard rushing mark for the fourth time in his career and accounted for 259 yards of total offense as the 20th-ranked Wildcats rolled to a surprisingly easy 35-6 victory over the Seawolves at Villanova Stadium.

“I think John had an outstanding game and when he plays that way, I think we can beat a lot of people,” Talley said.

Robertson ran for 119 yards and one touchdown on 20 carries, four shy of his career best, and connected on 9 of 12 passes for 140 yards and another score to give the Wildcats (1-2 overall, 1-0 CAA) their first win of the season.

That’s far better than the first two games, where Robertson turned the ball over five times (three lost fumbles, two interceptions) in tough losses to Boston College (24-14) and Fordham (27-24). Talley challenged his quarterback to be better and Robertson responded, once he was turned loose, of course.

“As a quarterback, it’s pretty much your team,” Robertson said. “If you win, it’s on you and I’m fine with that. The last two games I didn’t play as well as I can and that’s why we lost. I feel like today, we all played well. I think I played well. I was OK with our performance. And I think the defense did great today. They helped me out today. We didn’t have to come from behind.”

The defense took the run away from the Seawolves, thanks to a four-man front instead of Villanova’s usual three-man look that was partly designed to stop Stony Brook running back Marcus Coker and but also used to take some pressure off a linebacking corps that has been decimated by injuries.

“I think our depth and strength is up front,” defensive coordinator Billy Cocker said. “To be honest, we were expecting some heavier personnel up front, three tight ends, which what they did to us last year. Our plan was to make them throw it.”

Stony Brook’s offensive game plan changed when it was learned that leading rusher Marcus Coker is out for the rest of the season with an abdominal injury. The bruising 230-pound senior ran for more than 100 yards in the Seawolves’ 20-10 victory over the Wildcats in the first round of the 2012 FCS playoffs. But we Coker out, and Villanova sporting a four-man front, Stony Brook was forced to throw the ball.

Quarterback Lyle Negron was 23-for-33 for 279 yards and one touchdown, but he was not able to make the plays he needed to keep it close. Stony Brook was 4-for-14 on third down conversions and 1-for-3 when it went for it on fourth down.

“We needed to get a few more conversions,” Stony Brook coach Chuck Priore said.

While Stony Brook struggled on third and fourth down, Villanova turned to a little razzle-dazzle to score its first two touchdowns.

Faced with a third-and-goal from the Stony Brook four-yard line, backup quarterback Cody Pittman took a pitch from Robertson and lofted a pass to a wide open Gary Underwood for Villanova’s first touchdown. Villanova turned to deception again when Robertson threw a 43-yard scoring strike to Clay Horne off a flea-flicker to give the Wildcats a 14-0 lead.

“We ran a special play last week and it looked terrible,” Talley said. “Our offensive coordinator, Sam Venuto, gets itchy about stuff like that. I kept hounding him, ‘Come on, man. Put a couple specials in. Put a couple specials in.’ I’m like, he’s not going to do it, but he did. He listened and put a couple in, probably for me, just to keep me off his back. He had enough guts to call it because I didn’t call it. He called both of them. I like to stay wide open like that. I like to run a special every week. It’s feast or famine, why not? It’s one play.”

In this case, two that helped the Wildcats open up a 21-0 halftime lead. Safety Joe Sarnese put the game away when he scooped up a fumble and raced 36 yards to up the advantage to 28-zip.

“We call that a country ball,” Sarnese said. “You scoop it up … and haul to the end zone.”

And all of the sudden the Wildcats were winless no more.

“We needed this a lot,” defensive end Rakim Cox said. “Going 0-2 was no fun. The press and people on campus were in our heads about it. It’s still early in the season so this is a good way to kick-start the rest of the season.”